I watched both "Fireworks" and "Weathering" over the last few days. Fireworks was fun but as others have said, seemed to miss something, though I'm not sure what. Maybe what was going on wasn't explained clearly enough. I found the juxtaposition of 3D CGI elements and 2D elements a bit jarring in several places and the character design or animation on some of the distant figures felt a little crude.

The biggie for me though was feeling, at times, that I was watching a replay of parts of Bakamonogatari. The directing, artwork, poses, scene structure... it was all typical Shaft, but not only typical Shaft but typical Mongatari Shaft and I'm concerned that the Monogatari franchise has made the company so much money that they feel no need to do anything different or even feel constrained to keep delivering similar graphics and style. A pity. It would be good to see them be capable of a different style.

Also mysterious, quiet, sad, pretty girl meets blocked-headed, hopelessly immature dork-boy. Again. We've had enough of this trope, lets move on now please.

Turning to "Weathering" I had high hopes for this which were not quite met. While the visuals were gorgeous as you'd expect I sometimes feel these days like a Shinkai film is just a bit too much. Like too many helpings of a really delicious sweet cake that eventually makes you sick after a few mouthfuls too many.

Also, emotions. I feel like a lot of Japanese directors and writers hurl in so many tearful, screaming, angsty, fearful, whatever emotion-packed scenes that after a while I get immune to them and I felt this way while watching this film.

For me "Garden of Words" was a much stronger story, and more emotional simply because it was told in a more low-key way.

Both are worth watching though.

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

I think I'd largely agree that both of these films were good but could have been better.

Fireworks is so similar to Monogatari because as well as the studio, the director and character designer were the same, and they do have tendencies they keep coming back to in everything. I did actually like it visually though, so I didn't find this to be too much of a problem personally.

I think the main issue for me was that the character development felt a bit unbelievable. It suffered from being a feature film, because I thought that if it were a short series instead, that would have given more time to flesh out the characters. Having said that, it was adapted from a pretty short live-action TV film, so it was already an expansion on what had gone before...

On the bright side, the theme song was probably the best Japanese song of that year!

Weathering With You was not Shinkai's best, but I still really enjoyed it. It would have benefited from being a bit less like Kimi no na wa, but I can't say I'm surprised he went for something similar again. I'd probably like to see something a bit more low-key next time.

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Yes, the Fireworks main song was superb. I have seen a lovely AMV set to it which I think sums up the film better than the film does!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tKVN2mAKRI

Weathering, too, had fantastic music, though I think its time for Shinkai to use a different band for his next film. Radwimps are lovely but a different sound would help to make a change in his next story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXTn0E-Zgo

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

Oh that's true, I forgot it was Radwimps again! That was definitely one of the things I felt made it a bit too much like Kimi ni na wa.

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BTW what is the significance of Poppy Hill 2021 in your avatar? Is there a remake in the pipeline or is it just the 10 year anniversary?

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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info

"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)

It IS the 10th anniversary, but specifically it's for the Ghibli Cup: https://www.onlineghibli.com/tavern/thre...7&styleid=1

I think we did the first one very soon after you went inactive, but we've had it three years in a row now. You just missed it again, but I hope you can join in next time!

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quote:

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Originally posted by arren18
It IS the 10th anniversary,

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Haven't seen both, will check it out this weekend